The Woman in the Costume

“Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.” –Coco Chanel

“The core of the issue for me is the integrity of the superhero and that’s something that I take very seriously and the costume figures prominently in that. It would have to. And that’s why with Star Sapphire, I feel that she’s doing herself a disservice by looking like a trashy drag act.” –Tim Gunn

I used to live just south of Allan Gardens, at the time, a sketchier part of Toronto. Most of the municipal parks were ideal for gay men cruising other men and, thus, generally safe, but, while I lived at that address, Allan Gardens had dealers in it, sometimes police tape and once police tape around a stabbing victim.

If I went out at night, I would never cross through the park, instead I’d angle along the streets bounding it over to the store for juice or chips. And nights when the prostitutes weren’t out, I would turn around and go back home. If it were too dangerous for the pros along Jarvis, it was too dangerous for me. I joked that those women standing over 6 feet tall in thigh high boots and wearing shiny spandex, lurex or vinyl, were superheroes in disguise. And like I said: whenever there was trouble, they disappeared faster than Clark Kent.

While I have written about superheroine costumes in Terra Obscura and Catwoman, I find it disheartening and I really, really want to write about all the interesting things I find in comics. I almost didn’t write this piece because David Brothers and Kelly Thompson have written about superhero costumes so recently, so well. But I’ve been thinking while watching episodes of Alan Kistler and Jennifer Ewing’s podcast, Crazy Sexy Geeks, in which Project Runway‘s Tim Gunn responds to superhero costumes. In the October 14, 2011 episode about gender and costumes, Gunn says: “[The costume]’s also how you know that they’re the superhero.”

And that simple statement comprises my fundamental problem with so many costumes for female heroes and villains, the statement they make about what Coco Chanel called, “The woman in the dress,” or here, “the woman in the costume.”

On the show, they discuss a number of heroes, villains and characters in-between categories. Two of them have been on my mind for a while now: Star Sapphire, whose new look represents everything I dislike about superheroine costume design; and Power Girl, whose “old” look represented the ur-sexualized costume for many fans. Star Sapphire has been both villain and hero, wielding the power of Love with a jewel (and later a ring) while the Green Lantern Corps harness the power of Will with their rings. Power Girl is a Kryptonian hero related to Superman.

I might read a campy adults-only comic about Star Sapphire with a clitoral jewel lit by the power of love, something like Barberella or something with space drag queens or something written and drawn by Colleen Coover, but that would be honest, mature porn or erotica. In its current context, Star Sapphire’s costume does not say superhero or a supervillain and it undermines the integrity of both. (And if Star Sapphire’s power is love, what does this costume say about love?)

The above image of Star Sapphire with her boot on Hal Jordan’s neck reads less like she is powerful and Hal Jordan is at her mercy, than that Hal Jordan hired a domme for the evening, or maybe a drag queen playing domme. In fact the pose reminds me of Eric Stanton’s femdom illustrations, but softened by the pink, like neither Star Sapphire nor Green Lantern know how to take it any further than a pose.

For her part, Power Girl has a new costume in the DC reboot, but I’m interested in her old one here. That costume —in particular, the oval cut out revealing cleavage (often called her “tit window”)–became the prime example of problematically sexualized costumes and “fan service” on comment threads, forums and boards, as well as the subject of argument, sadly with very little irony, about “tit window drag.”

I don’t have a problem with the cut-out showing off Power Girl’s cleavage, though I do sometimes have a problem with how her breasts are drawn. I especially don’t have a problem with her cut-out when there were and are other characters somehow more naked than naked in pink energy. (Or purple latex: Catwoman would be fiercer naked than she is shiny and nippleless, let alone shiny, purple and nippleless). Cut-outs and keyholes are part of everyday fashion; they might be sexy but they are not necessarily vulgar. A cut-out, by itself, does not require impossible breasts.

Gunn comments: “It just seems that she owns this. I believe her. I believe this is who she is.” (Apr. 14, 2010). And I believe her, too. I believe that Power Girl is a superhero. Her costume picks up Superman’s colors and riffs on Captain Marvel’s cape, while having its own unique look—blue boots where Superman’s are red, blue gauntlets where Superman’s hands are bare.Her costume reflects her relationship to Superman, but also her different temperament.

There is sex appeal, sure, but there is more. There is a woman there, a character in that costume and her gloves say, “I will punch you into space.”

And I believe it.

~~~

Carol Borden would really love to read a comic where Star Sapphire is a space drag queen.

Full Disclosure: Carol recieved review copies of vol. 1 and 2 of Colleen Coover’s Small Favors, but she would’ve linked to it anyway.

Oh yeah — related question. Did you read Garth Ennis’ The Pro? A straight up “this superheroine is dressed like a hooker because she is a hooker.” I know the overarching point was that anyone, given the right chances, could become a hero, but it seems particularly pertinent to the costume debate as well.

A friend sent me the link and you probably saw it from there. What I always wonder is why the gentlemen who comment never seem to realize that the people who would really enjoy scantily-clad Spider-Man with painted on boots are generally not ladies, but other gentlemen.

I didn’t, though I appreciate him making a point that could certainly get through even the densest cloud of denial.

And I’m still not entirely certain that those particular prostitutes weren’t superheroes.

The Book!

We Have Mantis Fist Diagrams!

Gutter Business

Of Note Elsewhere

BBC Radio 4 has an adaptation of Robert L. Pike’s Bullitt. “Lieutenant Clancy, head throbbing from days without sleep, is assigned to protect important Mafia witness Johnny Rossi. But when he is found dead, Clancy has only a matter of hours to find the killer before his enemy, Assistant District Attorney Chalmers, finds out.”

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Andreas Hartmann talks about his documentary, My Buddha is Punk. “Around 2011, after 50 years of military rule, it appeared Burma was starting to change. But violation of human rights were continuing, the civil war was still going on and ethnic minorities were still persecuted. I was interested in how the youth, the future of the country, were dealing with that situation. At the time, Kyaw Kyaw was dreaming about a flourishing punk scene and was trying make his own dreams come true. He lived an interesting philosophy by connecting ideas from Buddhism and punk.”

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BBC Radio 4 has an adaptation of Wilkie Collins’ “The Haunted House.” “In 1860, the formidable Countess Narona marries a rich young aristocrat in London–but shortly after travelling to Venice her husband dies, apparently of natural causes, leaving the Countess a rich woman. Years later, guests in a Venetian hotel encounter the terrifying apparition of a murder victim seeking revenge.”

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“In 1924, Dracula premiered on stage in London, adapted by Irish actor and playwright Hamilton Deane. This production introduced the world to the charming, well-coifed, tuxedo-clad Count Dracula, as portrayed by Raymond Huntley (who allegedly provided his own costume). Without the subtleties a novel provides, Count Dracula’s sophisticated demeanor and seductive nature was communicated more explicitly for the stage.” More at Smithsonian.com.

I think now I shouldn’t have listened to him. But my experiences with the New York houses had not been good. My book covers ranged from mediocre to ghastly. There were problems with editing, especially copy editing and especially the copy editor who had a nervous breakdown while working on one of my books. He was apparently picked up by the cops, wandering through the streets of New York, either naked or with a gun. (I no longer remember which.) The publishing house realized the only copy of the manuscript was in the guy’s apartment, and they couldn’t get to it. Rather than contacting me for another copy, they hunted around the office and found an earlier version of the novel and typeset that. When I got the proofs to go over, I found serious problems, which had to be solved by me reading changes over the phone to an editor in New York with a pen. Of course mistakes were made and appeared in the published version.”

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Refinery 29 has an interview with YA author and writer of Marvel’s new America Chavez comic, Gabby Rivera. “What I noticed when I was reading the Young Avengers was that it felt like America was being pulled in by different characters — [Thor villain] Loki wanted her to do this or that; the fight wasn’t hers. She was treated like a member of the team, but I always wondered what’s in it for her? So my thinking for this new book is that she’s finally asking herself that question: What’s in it for me? Why am I fighting with these people? What I want is to go to college and I want to start over, and I want to learn about myself and do this for myself. And so that is the big thing that I was thinking about. What’s more American than trying to go to college and trying to find yourself?”